Lesson Plans
by sarcasmsweetie
Summary: Lily realizes she needs some help with Transfiguration and who is better equipped than James Potter himself?


"She's been staring at you for the last fifteen minutes, mate." James moved his rook, afraid to glance at the girl in question.

"So what if she has?" Sirius huffed as he glared at the chessboard. Truth of the matter is that James felt her eyes on him ever since he and Sirius got back from dinner about forty minutes ago. Of course he knew she was watching him because he had been watching her from the corner of his eye.

"Aren't you going to do anything about it?" James shrugged, watching Sirius move his bishop to capture James' pawn.

"What's there to do? Call her out on it? That'll only embarrass her and make her stop. Let her soak it in without guilt." Sirius chuckled before cursing as James took his knight.

"I swear your queen comes out of nowhere every time." James laughed at his friend's scowl. Looking over the board, he noticed he'd most likely win in the next two moves or so. He leaned back in his chair as Sirius considered his options. He glanced around the common room, unable to believe it was his seventh year. It was the start of October, but if the rest of the year blows by as fast as September did, he would be horribly disappointed. He lived to savor the moments and how can someone do that if time is passing too quickly?

Risking a glance at Lily during his scan, he found her smiling at him. She was sitting at a table to his left, books spread everywhere as she worked on some essay. He returned the smile, glad that she didn't look away.

"Aha!" James looked back to Sirius, observing his triumphant grin. "Check!" Looking at the board, James smiled and moved his last remaining pawn to take Sirius' offending rook.

"Nice try with that one, mate." Sirius rested his head on his hands, growling obscenities, which only caused James to laugh.

"If you don't do anything about Red's incessant staring, I swear to Merlin I will. It's distracting." James raised an eyebrow.

"How is it distracting you? She's not even giving you the time of day!" Sirius growled, so James raised his hands in mock defeat. "Fine. I'll do something when the game is over."

"That doesn't help my predicament, Prongs!" Sirius moved his queen to take the bishop, leaving space for James' rook. After James made that move, he smiled triumphantly.

"Checkmate." Sirius glared at the board.

"Not possible. There has to be something…" he trailed off and James chuckled. The only person who was able to beat him was Pete and since James loves to win, he usually avoids playing him like the plague.

"You're losing your edge, Potter. You could have taken him out ages ago." James ran his hand through his hair as his favorite redhead approached.

"The fun is in giving Padfoot the hope that he has a chance." Lily shook her head, trying to fight back her smile.

"Don't listen to him, Sirius. I'm sure you had him cornered for a good long while."

"Were you watching the same game as me? Or were you too busy watching a player?" Lily blushed and James tried to kick a grinning Sirius under the table.

"I was waiting for you to finish, actually. I have a few questions about Transfiguration, but I didn't want to interrupt." James shook his head.

"I can kick his arse whenever I want. Come on, let's see what has you stuck." Lily practically ran back to her table while James tried to bite back his laugh. "Always eager to learn, aren't you, Lils?"

"I'm eager to stop being wrong." James sat next to her, looking over the books she spread out.

"What's got you stuck, then? Seems like you have everything you'd need right here." Lily shook her head with a sigh.

"Theories and the like aren't the problem. The essay about the various forms of human transfiguration was a breeze. Animagus vs. Metamorphagus with an attached spells vs. Polyjuice, just to go into more depth about alternative transfiguration, of course." James smiled.

"Oh, yes of course. Always so prepared. What's the problem, then?"

"I can't _do_ any of the spells! That's why I threw in the potion—for those like me that can't actually transfigure a part on a human." She groaned before letting her head fall on the table. "I'm useless. I'll never leave Hogwarts because I'm incapable of passing Transfiguration."

James bit back his laughter as he rubbed circles on her back to calm her down. "You'll be fine, Lils. They haven't held back a student in sixty years and they were a Hufflepuff, so you have nothing to worry about." Lily laughed, but kept her head on the table.

He wasn't sure how long they sat like that, but certainly had no complaints. This time last year, Lily wouldn't have acknowledged his existence let alone ask him for help.

Lily finally lifted her head with a sigh and although her movements caused James to remove his hand from her back, he kept his arm resting on the back of her chair. "Let's get this over with, James. I'd much prefer to keep the embarrassment to a minimum."

"There will be no embarrassment, I promise you. Show me what you've been working on." James leaned back (arm staying on the chair, of course) so he could look over Lily, making sure she had the proper wand motions and such. She straightened up as she gripped her wand.

"I've been working on trying to lengthen my hair—that seemed simplest." James nodded, indicating she can start whenever she's ready. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and pointed her wand to the ends of her hair. He heard her mutter, "Tenticlifors," and his eyes widened. Before she opened her eyes to see the results, James waved his wand and whispered the spell to reverse her handiwork. Her eyes opened when she heard James whisper under his breath.

"New rule. We go over the incantation before you try anything." She grabbed her hair to examine it with wide eyes.

"What happened to me?" James grimaced.

"Other than changing your luscious locks to wiggling tentacles, nothing too out of the ordinary." She paled as she looked up to him.

"I did what." Her face was blank and James glanced away, feeling guilty to critique both incantation and wand movement.

"Technically, with that spell, your whole head should have been one tentacle. Good thing you flicked when you should have twisted. And hey, look on the bright side! You transfigured your hair into something!" She dropped her wand to the table before covering her face with her hands.

"I'm never going to get this, James. I may as well drop out and join the circus." His eyebrows knitted together in confusion, but due to her posture, the circus couldn't have been a good thing.

"Come on, Lils! Chin up. Expecting yourself to get it on the first try is a sure way to feel like a failure. Now pick up that wand of yours and let's do this." Once James corrected the incantation, they spent the next ten minutes or so practicing the wand movements before Lily tested it out, just to be safe.

"You go first, James. I want to see it in action before I give it a go." James grinned, pointing his wand to his head.

"Dentaforlis." Sure enough, once he twisted her wrist, his messy hair spread out. Once it reached past his chest and Lily let out a giggle, he put a stop to the growth. "Once you point your wand away, the hair will stop growing."

With a nod and a determined expression, Lily repeated her earlier action of closing her eyes before taking a deep breath. "Dentaforlis." She twisted too late, but to prevent her from being disappointed, James silently repeated the spell, keeping his wand looking relaxed on his lap.

"Open your eyes, Lil." She did so and her face broke out in the biggest smile.

"I'm doing it!" He moved his wand when she dropped hers and she started laughing. "I can't believe it worked!" James smiled, watching her now waist-length hair with wonder.

"I knew you had it in you, Lils. No more of this dropping out nonsense, got it?" Lily laughed before reversing the spell without a problem. James raised an eyebrow as she fixed his hair next. "Good form, Evans. One would think you've known it all along." James noticed her faint blush before she turned to start packing her books.

"I appreciate your help, James. You truly are a natural." He grinned as she stumbled over her words in her rush to escape.

"Lily Evans, you devious little thing, you!" Lily sighed, blush still covering her face, but her expression was no longer embarrassed.

"Yes, James. You caught me. But riddle me this: if I didn't do the reversal, would you have ever known?" Still chuckling, he shook his head.

"You had me going, Evans. You really did. If Transfiguration really does hold you back, you've certainly got acting nailed down." She smiled at him once her bag was packed.

"One more question. Were you ever going to tell me you did the spell for me?" It was James' turn to go blank for a moment while Lily gave him the knowing look.

"Uh… Well, I didn't want you to be disappointed. You were so excited and I didn't want you to get upset and—" His ramblings were thankfully cut off with her laugh.

"You're a gentleman and a scholar, James Potter." She leaned over and kissed his forehead. With a smile, she stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder. "Oh, and before I forget, James. I've been hoping you could help me with sneaking out to the kitchens later on. I wouldn't trust anyone else with such the milestone in my lessons." James smirked, heart beating like crazy.

"Your education is my top priority, Evans. Consider it done."


End file.
